140 Outstanding Leadership Quotes From the Global Leadership Summit

These quotes from powerful founders and corporate leaders, best-selling authors, and world-class speakers sum up what true leadership is all about.

Last week I had the honor of attending this year's Global Leadership Summit. No small technological feat, the summit is broadcast in 725 locations across the U.S. and Canada with additional locations in 130 other countries. It's translated into 60 languages.

I left the summit with a sizable boost of inspiration and an immeasurable dose of admiration for the 15 world class leaders who spoke at this conference. I have a steep appreciation for leaders who publicly validate a need for strong emotional intelligence, core values, transparency, authenticity, and compassion in today's leaders, as these speakers do. Here are 140 quotes to offer you a taste of the summit.

Simon Sinek, best-selling author, shared lessons from his upcoming book The Infinite Game.

1. A Just Cause says we will never get there but we will die trying.

2. Your Just Cause must be inclusive.

3. Your Just Cause must be service-oriented. The benefit must go to someone other than the contributor.

4. The primary benefit of leadership should go to someone else other than the leader.

5. You can tell when someone is commission-driven. You can feel it.

6. Leaders create an environment for employees to be their best selves. Safe enough to admit they need help or made a mistake without feeling it will hurt them.

7. "How do we get the best out of our people" is the wrong question. They aren't a towel to be wrung out. A better question is: "How do I create an environment in which people can naturally be their best selves?"

8. We do not trust people who follow rules. We trust people who know when the break them.

9. A worthy rival is not a competitor. They are someone who pushes you to improve yourself. You are the competitor in an infinite game.

10. Shareholder value is like a coach who pleases the fans at the expense of his players.

11. Your cause drives your decision.

12. Others can push me harder, but I compete against no one but myself.

Angela Ahrendts, Senior V.P. of Retail for Apple

13. Core values are the foundation of who you are, the foundation of what you believe, and what you carry with you through life.

14. Your core values dictate how you hire, how you lead, and the mission that you fulfill in life.

15. The higher up you go, the more you should connect and over-communicate.

16. Your job as a leader is to gather, unite, and inspire.

17. Don't allow your title to influence you.

18. Give yourself time to reset. When you give yourself time, your mind is clear and therefore your light can better shine.

19. Learn to hear and connect and celebrate.

20. When you are present with yourself you can be present for others.

21. A leader needs to walk slowly through the crowd.

22. In hiring, look for a we kind of person instead of a me kind of person.

23. It's not about hiring great individuals but how they fit into the team.

24. To move people, you have to be able to understand them.

25. You can teach people anything, but you can't teach people to care.

Craig Groeschel, senior pastor, Life Church. Named by Glassdoor as one of the Top 25 Best CEOs of Mid-Sized Companies

26. If you don't trust your team, you are either too controlling or you have the wrong people. Either way, it is your problem to solve.

27. The best leaders unleash higher performance through empowerment, not command and control.

28. You can have control, or you can have growth, but you cannot have both.

65. Powerful, impactful leaders know there is not a monopoly on intelligence.

66. The more power you give away the more powerful you become.

67. If people think there will be retribution for making a mistake, no one will give you an out of the box idea.

68. A leader's job is to create an environment where people want to contribute.

69. Leadership is a journey from execution to empowerment.

70. The price of inaction is greater than the cost of making the mistake. Indecisiveness can result in a lack of productivity in your team. Make decisions even in the face of a lack of information.

71. Don't be so afraid of making a mistake that you don't make a decision.

72. Every experience can result in lessons or blessings and both are valuable.

73. Authenticity isthis is the heart of your power and the heart of influential leadership.

74. The easiest way to penetrate a relationship is to bring your authentic self to the table.

75. Your authenticity is your distinct competitive advantage.

76. The price of inaction is greater than the cost of making a mistake.

77. If you need a lot of ideas (and you do to succeed), you need a lot of perspectives and experiences in the room.

78. You must be engaged with your people and understand what makes people motivated to win.

79. The way you differentiate yourself is by taking risks.

80. The thing that makes a leader stand out is courage. This is what holds all these words together.

Danny Meyer, restaurateur and one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People

81. There's nothing worse than wasting your life on something you don't want to do.

82. The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.

83. To get anywhere worthwhile is to listen to the people on the front lines.

84. Service means doing what you said you would do.

85. The shelf life of innovation is 2 minutes.

86. The customer is not always right. It's not about who's right or wrong, it's about feeling heard.

87. Companies thrive by doing the thoughtful things. Thoughtful is thinking and feeling.

88. If we know how to make you feel better than the next guy, you'll come back.

89. Once a mistake is made, you can't erase it. The only thing you can do is write a great next chapter.

Danielle Strickland, speaker, author, and social justice advocate

90. To make changes and change minds you must be able to imagine a better world and understand oppression.

91. We all want a better story and that is what everyone is after.

92. What makes the world flourish is men and women working together.

93. Women's empowerment is a key to so many of the things that are improving in our world.

94. If our actions and decisions are fear-based we will either be oppressed or be an oppressor. Fear is the currency of oppression.

95. Difference through the lens of fear is a threat. Difference through the lens of faith it is a blessing.

96. Mutuality is crucial for men and women to work together. The enemies of mutuality are power and sex.

97. Power is the ability to manipulate the course of events. How we use our power is the measure of our leadership.

98. Male privilege is a misuse of power. Shared responsibility is a good use of power. Do you invite women into your decision making?

99. Great leaders use power to empower other people.

100. If we're willing to listen to voices we don't normally listen to and are willing to learn from them, it will change how we live.

101. Never give up on the dream of men and women working together.

John Maxwell, New York Times best-selling author and speaker

102. If you can see the bigger picture, you are the leader, but now you have to see before others see.

103. Creativity and flexibility are crucial in leadership today.

104. Creative people believe there is always an answer.

105. Flexibility says there's usually more than one answer.

106. When you know what you want for your future, your mind will begin to think things that will help you get what you need; your heart will feel things that you need, your attitude will help you to believe.

107. Get people who drag you down out of your life. Be around people who inspire you.

108. The only way to guarantee that tomorrow will be better is to continue growing.

109. If you're still excited about what you did 5 years ago, you aren't growing.

Rasmus Ankersen, author and entrepreneur

110. Arrogance, complacency, and resistance to change can kill any company.

111. Leaders must think through how to keep their companies fresh and away from complacency.

112. One of the big problems for companies is outcome bias, defined by believing that good results are always the result of superior decision making.

113. Data never lies.

114. The fewer goals in a game, the more randomness has an impact. That's why the best team wins less often in soccer compared to basketball.

115. When you are successful, you should always ask why you were successful.

116. Too many companies hesitate to change, they wait until they have a burning platform.

117. When we become successful, comfort becomes more important than improvement.

118. One of the most important jobs of a leader is convincing people they haven't reached the top.

David Livermore, president of the Cultural Intelligence Center and best-selling author

119. It is our mistakes that help us improve as leaders, far more than our successes.

120. Cultural intelligence is the ability to work effectively together when people are from different cultural backgrounds.

121. The number one characteristic of a culturally intelligent leader is their curiosity.